June 18, 2008 - Rockville Community School Corporation Superintendent Gary Storie was hired Tuesday night as the next superintendent of the Charles A. Beard Memorial School Corporation.

The CAB School Board voted to approve a three-year contract with Storie, who fills the vacancy that was created when former CAB Superintendent David McGuire resigned last July. He will begin work at CAB July 1.

Storie had served as superintendent at RCSC in Parke County since January 2005. Two current members of the RCSC School Board gave Storie high praises and told The Banner he is going to be missed in Rockville.

"Gary is an outstanding administrator," said RCSC Vice President Ronald Wheeler. "I don't think I've seen anybody who's had more of an impact on things in as short a period of time as he has. He's just a good, hard-working, dedicated man - a good administrator and a great person. We hate to lose him terribly - we're just absolutely sick about it, actually. You folks are very fortunate."

"I wish he was staying instead of leaving," RCSC School Board member Ronald Skelton told The Banner. "He's a nice man and he's very functional - he gets things done in a good manner, and he's a gentleman along with it. He will make things better for you, I'm sure."

According to information on the Indiana Dept. of Education website, CAB is larger than RCSC, whose two schools had an enrollment of 889 students for the 2007-2008 school year. CAB, by contrast, had 1,388 students enrolled in its five schools.

Storie's administrative experience is not limited to small school corporations. Before he became superintendent at RCSC, he served five-and-a-half years in Jay County as principal at Westlawn Elementary School in the 10-school Jay School Corporation, which had a 2007-2008 enrollment of 3,764.

While they were not permitted to cast an official vote, three newly elected CAB School Board members who take office in July were allowed to participate in the superintendent selection process. One of those new members, Mark Fort, told The Banner he was very pleased with the selection of Storie, in part, because of Storie's business skills.

"He saved Rockville a lot of money," Fort said. "He's very innovative and he's got great people skills and will listen to people. When taxpayers come to speak, I guarantee he'll listen, and he'll talk to them. He won't treat them like they're a number. … I don't think we've had that in a long time."

Kevin Knott, a current member of the CAB School Board, also said Storie will be a positive addition to the school corporation. "I believe he has had a lot of relevant experience that will be very helpful at CAB," he said. "That includes experience in educational and curriculum-related areas, as well as past responsibility dealing with financial matters.

"I also think he has the desire, the motivation and energy necessary to propel our school corporation into the future," Knott continued. "I think he'll be a good match for CAB."

Knott, Fort and another current school board member, Larry Selvidge, spent about half a day in Rockville as part of their background check on Storie. Knott and Fort both said they didn't hear one bad thing about him.

"They certainly saw him as an asset to their community, and he will probably be greatly missed at Rockville," Knott said.

"We talked to business leaders, parents, teachers, coaches, administrators and former school board members in Rockville," Fort said. "They were all very satisfied and said that other than being their superintendent, he was very good for the community."